Now that we finally have all the cards, what are your thoughts for fleets?

Idea for a rebel fleet (I call the the "B*lls Deep Fleet")

Neb B Escort with Yavaris

Mark 2 AF with Gallant Haven & Bel Iblis

CR90b

6 Y wings

3 A wings

299 points.

The idea is to have each ship escorted by 2 Y wings and 1 A wing.

If Ties are sent on intercept, the Ships use their AS fire to assist the Y wings. A wings are there to "tie down" any Tie Bombers. The Ships drive straight at the enemy formation.

An alternative is to the above is

3 Neb B Escort (one with Yavaris, another with Bel Iblis) (201 pts)

7 B wings (99 pts)

300 pts

2 B wings with each frigate, with the extra hanging around Yavaris.

Nebs drive straight into the teeth of the enemy fleet, with the B wings keeping pace. If the Imps get any funny ideas about using their Tie Bombers, the B wings can engage them, and the Nebs can use their side fire arcs.

This is a similar approach to the previous fleet, however its speed will be severely limited by the B wings (It looks like speed 2 for fighters is lower than speed 2 for ships, based on Forensicus' pic in another thread)

What types of builds do you think will work?

I am not that familiar with the rules, but what about a rebel fighter fleet just jumping in to ambush the Imperial fleet?

I do not believe that hyperspace is a thing in this game "yet."

It would justify the presence of just fighters and no delivery ship.

You are only allowed to spend 1/3 of your fleet points on starfighters... It is in the last couple of paragraphs of the fighters article.

I was greatly disappointed to discover this limitation.

I feel crazy thinking this, but I am very drawn to three Nebulon B frigates. I believe I've seen some opinion in other threads regarding Rebel ships being too specialized to bring three of the same type. Maybe if you specialize them with the titles, it wouldn't be so bad?

Neb B Escort w/ Yavaris and Adar Tallon - 72pts

Neb B Support w/ Redemption and Bel Iblis - 84pts

Neb B Support w/ Salvation - 58pts

2 Y-wings, 2 X-wings, 2 A-wings - 68pts

That works out to 282 points, which leaves a lot of room to play with upgrades. I envision Yavaris in the thick of things near the fighters providing anti-squadron fire if necessary, Salvation primarily harassing your main target and Redemption keeping everything touched up with the bonus to the engineering command.

You could add Enhanced Armament to Redemption to allow it to attempt to drift further away and skirt around the battle at longer range and still fire two die from the side arcs. You could also upgrade one of the squadrons to an elite - I really like Dutch for only 6 more points, but he would be a hot target. Perhaps also add XI7 Turbolasers to Salvation - a buffed front arc shot that can't be dispersed very well could be devastating.

The three upgrades I like would add 22 points to the build as I first wrote it, so not possible... But two of the three at least would be able to fit in. I am definitely looking forward to giving it a spin. I mean, one of the Neb Bs could always also be a CR-90A w/ Leia and Tantive IV for 50points which would free more room to mess around... and I have 6 squadrons at present, but I have no idea exactly how valuable they'll be on the table yet.

Can you have multiple commanders?

Still playing around... and maybe I like upgrade cards a little bit too much like I did in X-wing...

Victory-I w/ Warlord, XI7 Turbolasers and Expanded Launchers - 100pts

Victory-II w/ Overload Pulse and Tarkin - 128pts

Soontir Fel, Interceptors, Howlrunner, 3 TIE Squadrons - 69pts

This is 297 points... so little to no wiggle room. You could dump the Expanded Launchers on the Vic-I, because that is a LOT of points to only get that front arc of madness at close range. Maybe trade the Launchers for Enhanced Armament. Either way, it's the simple "active the Vic-II first, exhaust their defense tokens, try to force them to discard them with the Vic-I attacks." With a pair of 3 command ships, I think Tarkin is pretty much a must.

I really like Overload Pulse to soften up a target for a beating... So sticking with the Vic-II ion, another option while getting more ships on the board would be to add Gladiators... but I do not really like the close range dependency of the Glad-I at all.

Victory-II w/ Overload Pulse and Motti - 117pts

Gladiator-II x2 - 62pts Each

Howlrunner, 5 TIE Squadrons - 56pts

That would also be 297 points. I like the lumbering terror of the first list, and I like the fact that there are three star destroyers with increased hull value to chew through in the second. I'm really unsure about the Gladiators though. I look at the Victory and I just assume poor maneuverability and I think that is rubbing off on my opinion of the Gladiator.

Still playing around... and maybe I like upgrade cards a little bit too much like I did in X-wing...

Victory-I w/ Warlord, XI7 Turbolasers and Expanded Launchers - 100pts

Victory-II w/ Overload Pulse and Tarkin - 128pts

Soontir Fel, Interceptors, Howlrunner, 3 TIE Squadrons - 69pts

This is 297 points... so little to no wiggle room. You could dump the Expanded Launchers on the Vic-I, because that is a LOT of points to only get that front arc of madness at close range. Maybe trade the Launchers for Enhanced Armament. Either way, it's the simple "active the Vic-II first, exhaust their defense tokens, try to force them to discard them with the Vic-I attacks." With a pair of 3 command ships, I think Tarkin is pretty much a must.

I really like Overload Pulse to soften up a target for a beating... So sticking with the Vic-II ion, another option while getting more ships on the board would be to add Gladiators... but I do not really like the close range dependency of the Glad-I at all.

Victory-II w/ Overload Pulse and Motti - 117pts

Gladiator-II x2 - 62pts Each

Howlrunner, 5 TIE Squadrons - 56pts

That would also be 297 points. I like the lumbering terror of the first list, and I like the fact that there are three star destroyers with increased hull value to chew through in the second. I'm really unsure about the Gladiators though. I look at the Victory and I just assume poor maneuverability and I think that is rubbing off on my opinion of the Gladiator.

No no, my friend, you are going about this all wrong! The Gladiator I is where it is at when you feel like kicking someone in the nuts! Allow me to explain:

Gladiator I "Demolisher" w/ Engine Techs and Assault Concussion Missiles = 81 points. First turn, crank up the speed. Take potshots with the red dice. On the money turn, burn the engine techs to move 4 with 4 clicks of yaw. Now unleash a broadside of 4 black dice. If you were in close range before, you will now be delivering that broadside straight up their arse. If you weren't in close range before, you certainly are in close range now. This works best with Screed as your commander for the guaranteed hit-crits on the black dice (dealing 4 damage each).

The Victory II seems like a great long-range sniper. You are too slow and lumbering to do too much fancy maneuvering, and if you throw yourself way out there, you are just exposing your rear. I am thinking something along the lines of:

Victory II "Warlord" w/ Leading Shots and Enhanced Armament = 107 points before Commander. Deploy ship slightly right or left of center. First turn issue Maneuver Command, reduce speed to 0 (or 1 if opponent is a tad timid) and take two clicks of yaw in the same direction as your deployment bias. Park it. Sac a blue dice to snipe re-rollable 3 red dice from front and side arcs. With the re-roll, each roll has a 93.75% chance to cause a hit, critical hit or double hit. Drink in your opponent's tears. And that's before they close to medium range and you add 3 re-rollable blue dice to the torrent of fire. Redirect all enemy hits to rear and whichever side is facing away from the enemy. This works best with Tarkin for Engineering tokens so you refresh a point of shields every turn regardless of what other commands you issue (and the command you issue should be CONCENTRATED FIRE, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA).

As for the Victory I, I don't see too much use for it except for Motti Spam.

Victory I w/ Expanded Launchers, Admiral Motti

Victory I w/ Expanded Launchers

Victory I w/ Expanded Launchers

2x TIE Squadrons.

Enjoy trying to chew through 33 hull points and taking 3 reds and 5 blacks from each ship. TIEs are there just to be annoying and delay enemy fighters for a turn while you use the Victories to clear the skies.

I feel like this list lacks the ships to be survivable.

The Imperial player will likely have around the same amount of ships on the board, which means they'll be able to focus on separate rebel ships without having to worry about being flanked.

With Ties escorting a Victory, you'll have some difficulty doing enough damage with fighters to take it out.

A Mark II might be useful but without many ships supporting it, you might find it will get hit hard early on

I think you'll need to reduce the amount of fighters you have in order to get more ships. Even if its just for extra CR90, that could help out.

Otherwise you may loose all your ships very quickly.

My take on a Rebel fleet:

Nebulon B Escort Frigate

- Mon Mothma

- Leia

- Redemption

CR 90a Corvette

- Raymus Antilles

- Tantive IV

CR 90b Corvette

- Dodonnas Pride

Squadrons: Luke, X-Wing x3, Y-Wing x2, Tycho

I love the synergy between Leia, Raymus and the Tantive IV. I don't know about the point costs for Tycho, but I reckon they are somewhere in the 16 point range. Instead of Tycho I could take Keyan or a normal A-Wing Squadron and some more upgrades (Enhanced Armament on the Nebulon B).

One X-Wing squadron would escort each Y-Wing Squadron, the third as an all purpose reaction group (or maybe Keyan escort). Luke would be a threat on his own. And Tycho with his ability can go wherever he needs to be.

Now Imperials :

Victory II SD

- Admiral Screed

- Overload Pulse

- XX-9 Turbolasers

Gladiator I SD

- Assault Concussion Missiles

- Engine Techs

- Demolisher

Squadrons: Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, TIE x3, Interceptor x2, Bomber x2

Should be an even 300. Maybe scrap one of the TIE Squadrons for Warlord Title on the Vic (after Overload Pulse hits - what it should because of Screed's ability - there is no need for accuracy symbols), but i don't know if that's a good idea. Probably better to scrap Mauler for another TIE squadron (but I would have to get rid of the XX-9 Turbolasers also to get enough points).

Too bad that squadrons are limited to 100 points. Otherwise I would take two A-Wings for the Rebel setup (101 points) instead of Tycho and one more TIE for Imperials (103 points) and scrap the Turbolasers.

Now Imperials :

Victory II SD

- Admiral Screed

- Overload Pulse

- XX-9 Turbolasers

Gladiator I SD

- Assault Concussion Missiles

- Engine Techs

- Demolisher

Squadrons: Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, TIE x3, Interceptor x2, Bomber x2

Should be an even 300. Maybe scrap one of the TIE Squadrons for Warlord Title on the Vic (after Overload Pulse hits - what it should because of Screed's ability - there is no need for accuracy symbols), but i don't know if that's a good idea. Probably better to scrap Mauler for another TIE squadron (but I would have to get rid of the XX-9 Turbolasers also to get enough points).

Too bad that squadrons are limited to 100 points. Otherwise I would take two A-Wings for the Rebel setup (101 points) instead of Tycho and one more TIE for Imperials (103 points) and scrap the Turbolasers.

Hmm, that Gladiator seems familiar.

I don't see the value of Bombers in this fleet, I would want Rhymer and Corrupter on the table for that. You could swap them for another TIE/Ln squadron and Warlord for the ship (as you said, you don't need no stinkin' accuracy results). Then you have 2 points to spare that you could use to swap Mauler for 2 more TIE/Ln squadrons, giving you Howlrunner, 6 TIEs and 2 Interceptors.

I like that modification. Having a Victory II, Gladiator I and a total if 9 TIE squadrons seems like a formidable list. I haven't seen anyone mention that Moff Tarkin's command ability seems quite powerful. To add an additional command to each capital ship every turn is awesome. Especially when a Victory needs to issue three commands in advance. This would allow for greater flexibility to react to tactical situations as they arise each round. That would probably get me dropping Screed for Tarkin and fielding 8 TIE squads.

I love the synergy between Leia, Raymus and the Tantive IV.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I have these three cards scribbled on the page of every list that I'm dreaming up, even if I don't fit them in it. I am a big Leia fan, and I love to see her on a card that feels like one that will get a lot of my consideration or play time. A couple problems I am facing is that I run out of 300 points VERY quickly, although I think it may be the desire to use more upgrade cards than I probably should... and I always seem to end up with 6 squadrons in the 60-70 point range regardless of a Rebel or Imperial fleet. I worry it's just not enough.

I think people are dramatically overestimating Overload Pulse for Imperials. Right now only the VSD-2 can take it and it's the exact opposite of the kind of ship you would want it on. Furthermore, just what targets are you going to use it on to strip tokens, where the target wouldn't die in the process anyway?

You want Overload Pulse on a small, fast, maneuverable ship with lots of blue dice on multiple facings. You want the target to be a big slow ship with a ton of shield and hull, so you actually have something to shoot at once the defense tokens are gone. Basically, you want a CR-90b shooting Overload Pulse at a VSD-2, not the other way around. Once the raider comes out, it could use Overload Pulse to support GSDs.

Leading shots, or ion cannons is what you want in that slot on a VSD-2. Specifically, the first on Dominator.

In fact, I have a seeking suspicion that some of the generic upgrade cards in one faction's pack seem best suited to the other faction's ships.

As for which Admiral Imperials should use, they seem to break down like this:

Tarken: Solid all-round upgrade and you have to pay for it. He get's you the command token you need when you need it, or lets you combo the same command and token at the same time easily. Most notably, with engineering doubled up, a VSD can regenerate 3 shields a turn.

Screed: He's attack dice insurance, simple and very effective with black dice. With GSDs and assault concussion missiles he may very well be God tier. Any time you roll a blank when attacking drop it to switch a black to the "hit and crit" face, this will give you an extra 1-2 damage unless you rolled all hits and crits in the first place, then, well, good job. He also guarantees a critical effect to trigger ACM for an extra 2 damage. This means a GSD has a very good chance of triggering ACM on both attacks in one turn for a total of 4 bonus damage plus whatever extra Screed did (Screed the forward attack that only has 2 blacks, and let luck give you a crit from the huge number of black side dice). That's a potential 3-4 extra damage from Screed per GSD with ACM per turn you are in range.

Motti: He exists to make the 3 VSD-1 list more viable, and could work in a 2VSD 1GSD list if you really need the spare points. Tarken giving engineering tokens so VSD and GSD can regenerate a shield each turn is straight up better and more versatile. Motti's ability also only matters if your ship would not otherwise have been overkilled.

I'd also like to take a moment to put more emphasis on how great ACM are. While the damage does not all go on one facing, the "splash" does soft counter redirect tokens, allow ships to be engaged effectively from multiple angles, and of course, absolutely crushes a ship that has multiple shield facings down (lol at the Neb-b).

I love the synergy between Leia, Raymus and the Tantive IV.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I have these three cards scribbled on the page of every list that I'm dreaming up, even if I don't fit them in it. I am a big Leia fan, and I love to see her on a card that feels like one that will get a lot of my consideration or play time. A couple problems I am facing is that I run out of 300 points VERY quickly, although I think it may be the desire to use more upgrade cards than I probably should... and I always seem to end up with 6 squadrons in the 60-70 point range regardless of a Rebel or Imperial fleet. I worry it's just not enough.

My hope is that the 300 points is only the initial size for tournament games while everyone comes up to snuff with collections and rules. Expanding to 350 or even 400 points wouldn't be a big deal, since in many cases that will mean an extra capital ship with some upgrades, and maybe a few squadrons.

I think people are dramatically overestimating Overload Pulse for Imperials. Right now only the VSD-2 can take it and it's the exact opposite of the kind of ship you would want it on. Furthermore, just what targets are you going to use it on to strip tokens, where the target wouldn't die in the process anyway?

You want Overload Pulse on a small, fast, maneuverable ship with lots of blue dice on multiple facings. You want the target to be a big slow ship with a ton of shield and hull, so you actually have something to shoot at once the defense tokens are gone. Basically, you want a CR-90b shooting Overload Pulse at a VSD-2, not the other way around. Once the raider comes out, it could use Overload Pulse to support GSDs.

Leading shots, or ion cannons is what you want in that slot on a VSD-2. Specifically, the first on Dominator.

In fact, I have a seeking suspicion that some of the generic upgrade cards in one faction's pack seem best suited to the other faction's ships.

While I agree that Overload Pulse isn't ideal for the Victory II as opposed to say Leading Shots (see my suggested Sniper above), I don't see any value at all with the Dominator. 14 points to sack two shields for two blue dice seems steep.

As for the upgrade cards, I wholeheartedly agree. Since you only get singles in each box, but you may want to use the same upgrade on multiple ships, I hope they eventually come up with an upgrade pack. It would be annoying to have to buy a couple of Rebel Assault Frigates if all you want is Enhanced Armament on two VSDs.

As for the upgrade cards, I wholeheartedly agree. Since you only get singles in each box, but you may want to use the same upgrade on multiple ships, I hope they eventually come up with an upgrade pack. It would be annoying to have to buy a couple of Rebel Assault Frigates if all you want is Enhanced Armament on two VSDs.

I'm afraid FFG already confirmed they will never release a card only pack for X-wing, and I'm 95% sure this applies to Armada as well. However they always try to put each upgrade into at least two different expansion, sometimes the two expansions are waves apart though.

As for the upgrade cards, I wholeheartedly agree. Since you only get singles in each box, but you may want to use the same upgrade on multiple ships, I hope they eventually come up with an upgrade pack. It would be annoying to have to buy a couple of Rebel Assault Frigates if all you want is Enhanced Armament on two VSDs.

I'm afraid FFG already confirmed they will never release a card only pack for X-wing, and I'm 95% sure this applies to Armada as well. However they always try to put each upgrade into at least two different expansion, sometimes the two expansions are waves apart though.

As for the upgrade cards, I wholeheartedly agree. Since you only get singles in each box, but you may want to use the same upgrade on multiple ships, I hope they eventually come up with an upgrade pack. It would be annoying to have to buy a couple of Rebel Assault Frigates if all you want is Enhanced Armament on two VSDs.

I'm afraid FFG already confirmed they will never release a card only pack for X-wing, and I'm 95% sure this applies to Armada as well. However they always try to put each upgrade into at least two different expansion, sometimes the two expansions are waves apart though.

I figured as much, which is unfortunate. Since a lot of the upgrades are discardable, the onus is on you to have a card for each ship that has that upgrade. The question then becomes, can multiple ships rock the same upgrades? I'm unfamiliar with X-Wing, does each ship come with any upgrades they could potentially take?

Ships usually come with 4-6ish upgrade cards, often just filling 1/2 of the possible slot (ie 2 different missile upgrades, 3 elite skills, on a ship that has 4 different slots). If you want to kit out a ship you often need 2-3 different ship expansions.

I think people are dramatically overestimating Overload Pulse for Imperials. Right now only the VSD-2 can take it and it's the exact opposite of the kind of ship you would want it on. Furthermore, just what targets are you going to use it on to strip tokens, where the target wouldn't die in the process anyway?

You want Overload Pulse on a small, fast, maneuverable ship with lots of blue dice on multiple facings. You want the target to be a big slow ship with a ton of shield and hull, so you actually have something to shoot at once the defense tokens are gone. Basically, you want a CR-90b shooting Overload Pulse at a VSD-2, not the other way around. Once the raider comes out, it could use Overload Pulse to support GSDs.

Leading shots, or ion cannons is what you want in that slot on a VSD-2. Specifically, the first on Dominator.

In fact, I have a seeking suspicion that some of the generic upgrade cards in one faction's pack seem best suited to the other faction's ships.

I think Overload Impulse is quite strong paired with Admiral Screed.

You get a guaranteed Crit and trigger Overload Impulse. You strip all defense tokens so all damage gets through.

When a VSD II fires from its front arc it has the same number of blue dice as a Corvette. Only one compared to two on teh side arcs, but the Corvette would be dependant on rolling the crit while Screed guarantees the crit and has two red dice left for damage (3 when you would add Armaments).

There is the risk of blanks on red dice, of course.

(I am not comparing rear arcs, because you should probably never face his rear to the enemy).

VSD are slow, but a Corvette has the same range limitations and has to get into range 2 as well to use it.

And there are mirror matches as well to consider. You would have your big juicy target in antoher SD (traitor :-)

Other Commanders might not make the most use out of it, but for me Screed "screems" Overload Impulse.

And don't forget that those tokens are also gone for all the other attacks directed against that target in the same round!

EDIT: I forgot that you can spend exhausted defense tokens, but if your opponent really chose to do so they are gone for good.

I also forgot that you need to sacifice one die for Screeds ability to work. so attacks from a side arc of a VSD might not be so strong with only one red die left (if ypu did not take Enhanced Armament). But a front attack is still reasonably strong. And if you manage to get your target in two arcs you could use the side arc for stripping the tokens and fire a full barrage from your front arc against a more or less defensless ship.

@ withershadow: I thought two Bomber Squadron could work as a nice distraction. Either they tie (no pun intended ) up at least one enemy squadron each or they get ignored and can take pot shots at Capital Ships (with exhausted defense tokens?) maybe even at the rear hul zone.

*snip*

Actually that only works if Crit effects are applied before defensive tokens. I suspect defenders will have the opportunity to apply their tokens before any damage or effects go through. Meaning Overload pulse would strip a single Defense token, as the other two would be used (under most circumstances, you can't always use Evasive Action (or whatever it is called) all the time).

However that would severely devalue Overload Pulse, so it could quite easily be that Crit effects happen first, then final damage is determined.

Now that we finally have all the cards, what are your thoughts for fleets?

I was just wondering if there is an easy to peruse list of all the cards? I haven't been able to find a good list outside of Fab's generator. Thanks!

If you click on the image on the news article, you can flip through the images on the pop-up. Also, the Wikia is pretty up to date (but I find it somewhat hard to navigate)

http://starwars-armada.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Armada_Wiki

Thanks megamen!